Inflation goes up
By politics.co.uk staff
The cost of living is rising faster than it has for years, official figures have shown.
The consumer prices index (CPI) – the measurement of the cost a number of goods and services – went up by 3.7% in April, from 3.4% the month before.
Under Treasury rules, the governor of the Bank of England, Mervyn King, will have to write a letter explaining the rise in inflation to the chancellor George Osborne.
Other measures of the rise in the cost of living also went up. The retail prices index (RPI) rose by 5.3%, nearly a whole percentage point up from March. It is now at its highest level since July 1991, when it reached 5.5%.
The RPI excluding mortgage repayments went up by 5.4%, up from 4.8% in March.
